Saints 27-35 Raiders: Four Fourth-Quarter Turnovers Undo New Orleans
Tyler Shough threw four touchdown passes and the Saints led by 11 entering the fourth — then gave the ball away four times as Las Vegas scored 19 unanswered to stay unbeaten.
For three quarters, the Superdome home opener belonged to New Orleans. Then the fourth quarter happened. The Saints turned the ball over four times in the final period and the Raiders ran off 19 unanswered points to win 35-27 and move to 3-0, per the Saints' own recap.
How it unfolded
Las Vegas led 16-13 at halftime before New Orleans scored 14 straight in the third quarter — a run helped along by a fumble recovery on a Raiders kickoff return — to go up 27-16. Tyler Shough was sharp to that point, finishing 29-of-42 for 255 yards and four touchdown passes, two of them to tight end Juwan Johnson, with Chris Olave adding 9 catches for 107 yards.
The turning point came early in the fourth, when Malcolm Koonce sacked Shough and the loose ball was ruled a fumble rather than an incomplete pass — a call CBS Sports described as controversial. It set up Kirk Cousins' go-ahead 4-yard touchdown to Cody White, and the collapse snowballed from there: Shough finished with three giveaways (two fumbles and an interception), and Johnson's fumble with 53 seconds left ended the last realistic chance of a comeback.
The other sideline
Cousins was the quieter, cleaner quarterback: 22-of-33 for 248 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. Brock Bowers, making his season debut, caught 10 passes for 116 yards and a score, and Mike Washington Jr. added 54 rushing yards including a 36-yard touchdown, per CBS Sports. Saints head coach Kellen Moore put it plainly afterward — the fourth-quarter turnovers were the difference, and his team did not get it done.
What it means
Las Vegas is 3-0 with a formula that travels: efficient quarterbacking, a dominant tight end and a defense that creates takeaways. New Orleans falls to 1-2 knowing the harder truth — the offense produced enough to win, and ball security alone gave the game away.